Houses are built to live in, and not to look on, therefore, let use be
preferred before uniformity, except where both may be had. Leave the
goodly fabrics of houses, for beauty only, to the enchanted palaces
of the poets, who build them with small cost. He that builds a fair
house upon an ill seat,[459] committeth himself to prison; neither do I
reckon it an ill seat only where the air is unwholesome, but likewise
where the air is unequal. As you shall see many fine seats set upon
a knap[460] of ground environed with higher hills round about it,
whereby the heat of the sun is pent in, and the wind gathereth as in
troughs; so as you shall have, and that suddenly, as great diversity of
heat and cold as if you dwelt in several places. Neither is it ill air
only that maketh an ill seat; but ill ways, ill markets, and, if you
will consult with Momus,[461] ill neighbors. I speak not of many more:
want of water, want of wood, shade, and shelter, want of fruitfulness,
and mixture of grounds of several natures; want of prospect, want of
level grounds, want of places at some near distance for sports of
hunting, hawking, and races; too near the sea, too remote; having
the commodity of navigable rivers, or the discommodity of their
overflowing; too far off from great cities, which may hinder business;
or too near them, which lurcheth[462] all provisions, and maketh every
thing dear; where a man hath a great living laid together, and where he
is scanted; all which, as it is impossible perhaps to find together, so
it is good to know them, and think of them, that a man may take as many
as he can; and if he have several dwellings, that he sort them so, that
what he wanteth in the one he may find in the other. Lucullus answered
Pompey well, who, when he saw his stately galleries and rooms so large
and lightsome, in one of his houses, said, “Surely, an excellent place
for summer, but how do you do in winter?” Lucullus answered, “Why,
do you not think me as wise as some fowls are, that ever change their
abode towards the winter?”[463]
To pass from the seat to the house itself, we will do as Cicero doth in
the orator’s art, who writes books De Oratore, and a book he entitles
Orator; whereof the former delivers the precepts of the art, and the
latter the perfection. We will therefore describe a princely palace,
making a brief model thereof; for it is strange to see, now in Europe,
such huge buildings as the Vatican and Escurial,[464] and some others
be, and yet scarce a very fair room in them.
First, therefore, I say, you cannot have a perfect palace, except you
have two several sides; a side for the banquet, as is spoken of in
the book of Esther,[465] and a side for the household; the one for
feasts and triumphs, and the other for dwelling. I understand both
these sides to be not only returns, but parts of the front, and to be
uniform without, though severally partitioned within; and to be on both
sides of a great and stately tower in the midst of the front, that, as
it were, joineth them together on either hand. I would have, on the
side of the banquet in front, one only goodly room above stairs, of
some forty foot high; and under it a room for a dressing or preparing
place, at times of triumphs. On the other side, which is the household
side, I wish it divided at the first into a hall and a chapel, (with a
partition between), both of good state and bigness; and those not to go
all the length, but to have at the further end a winter and a summer
parlor, both fair; and under these rooms a fair and large cellar sunk
under ground; and likewise some privy kitchens, with butteries, and
pantries, and the like. As for the tower, I would have it two stories,
of eighteen foot high apiece above the two wings; and a goodly leads
upon the top, railed, with statues interposed; and the same tower to
be divided into rooms, as shall be thought fit. The stairs likewise to
the upper rooms, let them be upon a fair open newel,[466] and finely
railed in with images of wood cast into a brass color, and a very fair
landing-place at the top. But this to be, if you do not point any of
the lower rooms for a dining-place of servants; for, otherwise, you
shall have the servants’ dinner after your own; for the steam of it
will come up as in a tunnel.[467] And so much for the front; only I
understand the height of the first stairs to be sixteen foot, which is
the height of the lower room.
Beyond this front is there to be a fair court, but three sides of it
of a far lower building than the front; and in all the four corners of
that court fair staircases, cast into turrets on the outside, and not
within the row of buildings themselves; but those towers are not to
be of the height of the front, but rather proportionable to the lower
building. Let the court not be paved, for that striketh up a great
heat in summer, and much cold in winter; but only some side alleys
with a cross, and the quarters to graze, being kept shorn, but not
too near shorn. The row of return on the banquet side, let it be all
stately galleries; in which galleries let there be three or five fine
cupolas in the length of it, placed at equal distance, and fine colored
windows of several works; on the household side, chambers of presence
and ordinary entertainments, with some bedchambers; and let all three
sides be a double house, without thorough lights on the sides, that you
may have rooms from the sun, both for forenoon and afternoon. Cast it,
also, that you may have rooms both for summer and winter; shady for
summer, and warm for winter. You shall have sometimes fair houses so
full of glass, that one cannot tell where to become[468] to be out of
the sun or cold. For imbowed[469] windows, I hold them of good use; (in
cities, indeed, upright[470] do better, in respect of the uniformity
towards the street;) for they be pretty retiring places for conference;
and, besides, they keep both the wind and sun off; for that which
would strike almost through the room doth scarce pass the window: but
let them be but few, four in the court, on the sides only.
Beyond this court, let there be an inward court, of the same square
and height, which is to be environed with the garden on all sides;
and in the inside, cloistered on all sides upon decent and beautiful
arches, as high as the first story; on the under story towards the
garden, let it be turned to grotto, or place of shade, or estivation;
and only have opening and windows towards the garden, and be level
upon the floor, no whit sunk under ground to avoid all dampishness;
and let there be a fountain, or some fair work of statues in the
midst of this court, and to be paved as the other court was. These
buildings to be for privy lodgings on both sides, and the end for
privy galleries; whereof you must foresee that one of them be for an
infirmary, if the prince or any special person should be sick, with
chambers, bedchamber, “anticamera,”[471] and “recamera,”[472] joining
to it; this upon the second story. Upon the ground story, a fair
gallery, open, upon pillars; and upon the third story, likewise, an
open gallery upon pillars, to take the prospect and freshness of the
garden. At both corners of the further side, by way of return, let
there be two delicate or rich cabinets, daintily paved, richly hanged,
glazed with crystalline glass, and a rich cupola in the midst, and all
other elegancy that can be thought upon. In the upper gallery, too,
I wish that there may be, if the place will yield it, some fountains
running in divers places from the wall, with some fine avoidances.[473]
And thus much for the model of the palace, save that you must have,
before you come to the front, three courts: a green court plain, with
a wall about it; a second court of the same, but more garnished with
little turrets, or rather embellishments, upon the wall; and a third
court, to make a square with the front, but not to be built, nor yet
inclosed with a naked wall, but inclosed with terraces leaded aloft,
and fairly garnished on the three sides, and cloistered on the inside
with pillars, and not with arches below. As for offices, let them stand
at distance, with some low galleries to pass from them to the palace
itself.